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“Left to Their Own Devices”

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“Left to Their Own Devices” “LEFT TO THEIR OWN DEVICES” Belgium’s Ambiguous Assimilation of Eupen-Malmedy (1919-1940) - Vincent O’Connell - The inter-war period in Eupen-Malmedy remains a sensitive arena in which the experiences and sensibilities of its inhabitants have barely been broached by historians. The controversial milestones of the interwar period in Eupen-Malmedy have been covered over with the palimpsest of what the late Tony Judt has referred to elsewhere as ‘selective forgetting’ where communities as well as individuals shield certain episodes or events of the past from intrusion by historians1. The German historian Freddy Cremer describes this phenomenon as akin to ‘amnesia as therapy’. The period following the Nazi invasion and annexation of the former Germany districts in 1940 and their later liberation conspired to further compound an already complex situation. Since then the historical narrative has been shrouded beneath a veil of silence. This article aims in some small way to pull back this veil so that in Cremer’s words “the past may not be left untouched”2. 11 Belgium’s Ambiguous Assimilation of Eupen-Malmedy Klaus Pabst’s Eupen Malmedy in der bel- Pieter Lagrou in his work on national memory gischen Regierungs- und Parteienpolitik and recovery in post-Nazi Europe argues 1914-1940 published in 1964 has been the that : Awareness of and explicit research into traditional starting point for scholars inte- representations of a historical event im me- rested in this borderland territory and deli- diately afterwards, generally helps the his- neates the political relationship between torian to avoid the bias implicit in many of Eupen-Malmedy and Belgium up to the Nazi his or her sources, and to avoid the pitfalls annexation of 1940. More recently Bruno of partisan accounts or carefully construc- Kartheuser has examined the phenomenon ted self-serving narratives that might other- of pan-German activity in Eupen-Malmedy wise impose themselves as ready-made inter- in the wake of the period of transition and pretations4. its later transformation at the hands of Nazi opportunists. His study shows how In a similar vein, neglecting to focus on previously anodyne cultural organisations the events which precede a particular his- became transformed into incubators of covert torical event can also lead to distortions Nazi activity3. Christoph Brüll argues that in the historical narrative. This article de- although Kartheuser demonstrates the degree monstrates argues that while a myriad of of enthusiasm and accommodation for Nazi social, political and economic concerns ideas in the districts, he fails to explain why may have helped to play a part in pushing people chose a particular route. He accuses individuals one direction or another, the Kartheuser of concentrating instead on making primary factor which allowed the pheno- moral judgements and thus losing the nuance menon of pro-Nazism to emerge almost between motivations which were either unhindered in the wake of the period of pro-German or pro-Nazi. Martin Schärer’s transition was the level of disillusionment Deutsche Annexionspolitik im Westen had felt among in habitants of Eupen-Malmedy previously focused on the annexationist who having been forced against their will policies of the Third Reich in Eupen Malmedy “into the bosom of the Motherland” were demonstrating how these proved counter eventually betrayed by her and left confu- productive to gaining support among the sed and disillusioned as to which route to erstwhile pro-German population. take5. 1. TONY JUDT, Postwar. A history of Europe since 1945, London, 2005, p. 803-831. See also his interview with DONALD A. YERXA, “Postwar. An interview with Tony Judt”, in Historically Speaking, vii (3), 1-2.2006, http://www.bu.edu/historic/hs/judt.html. 2. Freddy Cremer cited in “Freddy Cremer beklagt ‘Amnesie als Therapie’”, in Grenz Echo, 29.9.2010. 3. BRUNO KARTHEUSER, Les années 30 à Eupen-Malmedy. Regard sur le réseau de la subversion allemande, Neundorf, 2001. 4. PIETER LAGROU, The legacy of Nazi occupation. Patriotic memory and national recovery in Western Europe, 1945-1965, Cambridge, 2000, p. 4. 5. CHRISTOPH BRÜLL, “Eupen-Malmedy 1918-1945. Le temps des déchirures”, in Hommage à Henri Bragard (1877- 1944), – Collection “Mémoire wallonne”, 13, Liège, 2009, p. 7-38. Belgium’s Ambiguous Assimilation of Eupen-Malmedy 12 I. ‘Into the Belgian Family’ up to the Nazi-annexation, where this particular territorial gain increasingly came to The conditional cession of the German be seen as a Trojan horse in the eyes of many10. districts of Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium in Any perceived disadvantages were subsumed 1919 fell far short of Belgian expectations at by concerns for Belgium’s future security and the outset of the peace negotiations in Paris6. the desire for economic recompense, quite The eventual outcome saw Belgian hopes of apart that is from the palpable appetite for territorial aggrandisement evaporate almost retribution11. This view was best summed up by entirely7. Apart from the colonial territory a number of visiting Belgian parliamentarians of Ruanda-Urundi which was mandated to in June 1919, just prior to the signing of the Belgium by Great Britain in 1920, the two Versailles Treaty when they concluded that German districts together with Neutral Mores- the general rule of thumb in terms of territorial net were to be the only tangible territorial claims ought to be “the minimum of Germans acquisitions the country would show for its with the maximum of forest”. The welfare of efforts8. To some segments of the population the inhabitants of the region sat far down the inside Belgium gaining Eupen-Malmedy menu of considerations12. risked inviting trouble as much as securing the borders of the state. So soon after the war Within these two districts lived two cultural- and the oppressive German occupation, a ly distinct communities which together num- tangible distrust among the Belgian populace bered around 64,000 inhabitants. Whilst towards these so called redis covered brothers Eupen was predominantly ethnic-German in (frères retrouvés) was evident in press and in character, Malmedy contained almost 10,000 parliament9. Such suspicions would continue Walloons who had been subjects of the German to colour public opinion inside old-Belgium Empire for over a century13. The majority of 6. A separate piece of legislation regulated the status of the triangular snippet of territory known as Neutral-Moresnet (Moresnet-Neutre); Bibliothèque royale du Royaume de la Belgique (KBR), Annales parlementaires, 1918-1946, M.B.19; Loi réglant le statut du territoire de Moresnet- neutre, 15 September 1919, in Moniteur belge, 17.10.1919; FIRMIN PAQUET, “Le territoire contesté de Moresnet, dit Moresnet-Neutre”, in Bulletin de la Société verviétoise d’Archéologie et d’Histoire, XLVII, 1960, p. 53-153. 7. Archives du Palais royal (APR), I/981. Hymans was assisted at the Paris Peace Conference by Emile Vandervelde the leader of the Belgian Socialist party, and Jules van den Heuvel who gained a seat on the Reparations Commission (“La Belgique et la paix”, 8.3.1920). 8. By The Treaty of Versailles, i.22, Belgium was granted a mandate over the former German colony of Ruanda-Urundi. This was confirmed by the League of Nations on 20 July 1922 and reaffirmed on 31 August 1923 W( ILLIAM R. LOUIS, “Great Britain and the African peace settlement of 1919”, in American Historical Review, 71, 1966, p. 875-892). 9. Le Courrier de l’Armée, no. 677, 23.11.1919 and no.681, 21.12.1919. 10. Gazette de la Croix, 10.8.1926. 11. ROBERT DEVLEESHOUWER, “L’opinion publique et les revendications territoriales belges à la fin de la première guerre mondiale”, inMélanges offerts à G. Jacquemyns, Bruxelles, 1968, p. 207-38. 12. Note remise par …..Puisset, Impériali and Jules Destrée à la commission des affaires extérieures à propos de Mlamédy (sic) [Archives du Ministère des Affaires étrangères (AAEB), D3311, nr. 10]. 13. MARTIN R. SCHÄRER, Deutsche Annexionspolitik im Westen. Die Wiedereingliederung Eupen-Malmedys im Zweiten Weltkrieg, Bern/Frankfurt am Main, 1978², p. 86; GERD KLEU, Die Neuordnung der Ostkantone Belgiens 1945-1956. Politik, Kultur und Wirtschaft in Eupen, Malmedy und St.Vith, Essen, 2007, p. 12. 13 Belgium’s Ambiguous Assimilation of Eupen-Malmedy the population however were ethnic German. administration in the short term he was met The town of Malmedy itself had just 6,000 with the following response: inhabitants and was largely dependent on its famed paper milling and tanning industries14. “See that it goes well and that it doesn’t cost Eupen was geographically a much smaller too much. When you will have good things Kreis than Malmedy albeit more densely to communicate to me, do so. You will be populated. The 15,000 inhabitants who lived like a colonial governor but a colony directly there were in the main employed in textiles, connected to the Metropolis”17. weaving and in agriculture15. The cession of Eupen-Malmedy by the Versailles The law of 15 September 1919 established Treaty was conditional on the holding of a the transitory Eupen-Malmedy Government popular consultation (described in the treaty of an indefinite duration under Baltia. Baltia as a “public expression of opinion”)18. As soon embarked on a project of nation-building at as he was installed in his seat of government a time when many new nation states were in Malmedy, Baltia set about administering forming across Europe. Even so, the territory the popular consultation with zeal. He in which this mission was to take place sat on clearly understood the perils attached to one of the many geopolitical fault lines of the such a far from assured endeavor. Writing post-war period alongside the neighbouring to Delacroix in February he warned, “If the contested territory of Alsace -Lorraine.
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